Dear John:

Your description of Prayer is a good one. We are to pray at all times. Sometimes people will say, "How? I have things to do." This is accomplished by us making everything a prayer. St. Therese, the Little Flower, made the act of scrubbing the floor a prayer. Every action we take can be a prayer to God.

We can also form a mental prayer from many of the actions that we perform each day. For example, when changing a baby's dirty diaper, one could pray, "Lord, as I change this stinky diaper please remove the sting for my soul."

Every moment of our lives can be a prayer. Every action in our lives can be a prayer.

Prayer is also a conversation with God. What would our loved ones think of us if we never talk to them, never communicated with them, or only talked to them we wanted something from them? Prayer is not just the "I want." We should talk to our beloved about everything of our lives.

When I was healthy thing to do this, I will go out to a field behind where he lived and just walk up and down the path for hours sometimes in the middle of the night talking to God. Very little of this time was spent in asking God for something. Rather, it was telling God about my day, about my dreams, asking for advice to deal of problems, and just praising God under the stars.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary